Components within gas turbine engines, such as aircraft engines, land based turbines, and the like, are frequently exposed to high temperatures due to the operation of the gas turbine engine. In order to mitigate the effects of the high temperatures, some components are exposed to cooling flows and convective heat transfer from the component to the cooling flow cools the component.
The cooling flow continuously cycles a coolant, such as air, over one or more surface of the component. The cycling of the coolant removes the warmed coolant and replaces the warmed coolant with a cooled coolant. In a closed loop coolant system, the warmed coolant is passed to a cooler, alternately referred to as a condenser, where it is cooled and returned to the coolant flow. In an open loop cooling system, cooled coolant is drawn from a supply, passed over the component and expelled.